There are tens of thousands of apps in the Android Market, and Google’s software lets you filter by category or search. But for a company that built its name on search, the Android Market’s default search engine is a bit hit or miss. For instance if you search for Google Reader, the Android Market shows the official Google Reader app third. Chomp shows it first.

Chomp also does a good job of letting you search for apps by type — even if Google doesn’t offer a specific category for that type of app. For instance, “expense trackers,” or “chat.”

That said, I feel like the Android Market did a much better job with “instant messenger” than Chomp, which returned just two results for that query. At least they were both relevant. Google returned a number of chat apps as well as Words With Friends and Scanner Radio Pro, two apps which are not known first and foremost for their IM capabilities.

Chomp lets you filter searches based on price and whether the apps are games or not.

Unfortunately there’s no way to download apps directly through Chomp. So when it comes time to actually download or purchase an app, Chomp will still dump you out to the Android Market. That means installing apps with Chomp is a two-step process — and the app won’t work on devices that don’t have Market access.